The calm, cooling winds coming down from the mountains flowed through the open forest. A peaceful tranquility spread throughout, only interrupted by a lone reptile walking along the road. The creature had one clear goal in mind as he relentlessly ventured on. As the young reptile continued to stroll through the foggy gaze he illuminated the air from a distance in an orange obvious glow. The creature’s tiny tattered feet left obvious paw prints from his four claws as he ventured onward with no clear destination in mind, but his goal kept his determination to survive strong. The silence, mixed with his feet scratching the earth and his heavy breathing and ever increasing hunger, kept the tiny creature on edge. His one and only goal—to continue living—was looking bleak.
He knew what would happen, just like it always had. He would wander from town to town, only to be run out as he was misjudged as a strange threat or, worse yet, an enemy. The creature was quickly running out of ideas, and locations to visit. His determination to keep on living was the one thing he had that never dwindled, even though all sorts of things had gone wrong in his short life. He had one place left on his half-ruined map that he had not tried yet. He brought up the map again, making sure that he was heading in the right direction to the pony village in the center that was dubbed Ponyville.
An anguished scream tore from his throat, frightening the tiny creatures of the forest. “The next town I visit, I’m not leaving without something in my stomach. And if I have to fight someone in this Ponyville, then fine!” the creature yelled as he tore up the map, his frustration giving him a new-found determination. Now fueled by his anger, he started running down the path towards Ponyville.
With desire burning in his heart, he felt that he needed something that could finally distract him from the hunger. After fifteen minutes of straight running, he stopped to take a break. He dimly noticed that the fog was clearing as he brushed himself off and sat down for a breather. His eyes closed while he sat under a tree breathing in and out over and over as light tingles of frost cleared from his nose.
After about another fifteen minutes, he slowly opened his eyes to see a large, clear lake, near what looked like an orchard of apple trees. He rubbed his eyes to make sure it was real, and in his excitement, started breathing far more heavily than before. He wanted to cry tears of joy, but hunger determined that that could wait.
“So many apples... I can’t believe this,” the creature said, his mouth wide open and dripping a small trail of drool down his front. “Huh?” He finally snapped out of his reverie, and looked down to notice the mess he made of himself. Sheepishly, he brushed off all the unusual sparkling spit so he could focus on his future meal.
The dragon stared up at the nearby apple tree with pure lust painted across his eyes. As he stepped one paw forward, he paused, as he noticed something different about these trees: there were plenty of them, and the way they were growing made it clear that they were not wild.
“Ok...” he said softly to himself, “I need to be careful. Usually when I try this, some mean ponies chase me out of town.” The creature carefully looked around, scouting to make sure that he was really alone. With nopony in sight, he gave himself the all clear to move forward.
He extended his claws and slowly began to climb up one of the trees, claw over claw, taking his time. He plucked some apples from the tree, gently tossing them down to the ground so he wouldn't overbalance himself. When he had taken as many as he wanted, he jumped down, and for a moment, he just stared, admiring his new treasure. Picking one up, he rotated it in his claw, turning it over and over until finally he slowly opened his mouth to take a bite, his first bite of food in what felt like ages. But before he could even complete that bite, a strange orange-like blur sped past him, snatching that apple out of his hand. He ended up biting down on his tongue, which did hurt, but not too much.
“Now, hold on Spike, what have Ah told you about-” The pony stopped short, and looked the creature up and down. The creature returned the gesture, his wary eyes running up and down her frame. She wore a cowboy hat and was orange in color, a bit like the dragon, but she was a grown pony and he was obviously not. Three apples graced her flank. “Okay... you’re not Spike,” she said simply as she studied him up and down, “but ya sure do look like him.”
The creature’s legs started to shake as he determined his best course of action. The pony was quite large, but he was a dragon after all. She was waiting for a response, and the dragon was out of ideas, but he suddenly remembered what he had said earlier about fighting for his food. He looked at his right claw as it started to shake more, and he tried to steady his nerves. He took a big gulp of air and attempted to punch the pony, with multiple variations on the theme “this is a bad idea” running through his head. The dragon swung his claw, which caused him to unbalance his body and fall flat on his face.
The pony blinked slowly, feeling more curious and confused than threatened.
“I… I...” The dragon felt utterly defeated, and he rolled over on his back looking up at the orange pony. He knew that it was hopeless, so he started to cry. “Oh please, just give me the apples!” the dragon yelled, which struck the pony with shock. “I have not eaten anything in days! I’m just so hungry!” he finally spat out and started crying his eyes out at the hooves of the female pony.
The pony certainly considered pitying the small creature. Her wide eyes looked over the creature and back to the apples. He was definitely a child dragon from the looks of it, and he certainly resembled her good friend Spike. And she could also tell with a quick glance that he was dirty, hungry, tired, and certainly alone. The pony decided that something was up here, but the dragon did not seem to be in any state for chatting, so she picked up all the apples and dropped them in his lap. She waited for a response while he wiped his tears and looked at his lap in disbelief. Never before had anypony showed him compassion, let alone just give him some food.
“From the looks of you, Ah can see that you’re telling the truth. Ya look famished, so eat up. Then we c'n discuss who you are and where you came from,” she said. There was no malice in her voice, but it was clear that what had sounded like a suggestion was more of a command.
He smiled for the first time in ages, cried some more, and picked up all the apples, shoving them into his mouth and eating them as quickly as his little mouth would let him. To say he made a mess would have been an understatement. He licked his claws, burped loudly, then fell back on his back again as he smiled in content having forgotten about the new pony.
She gave a little cough, making the little dragon jump. “Now then, you gonna tell me who you are, where you came from and where in tarnation’s are your...” she paused, trying to think of the correct term, but ended up using a simple “dragon parents?” Her voice wasn't harsh, but it was clear she wanted an answer—and fast.
“I… um...” The dragon tried to reply, but he only knew the answer to one of those questions. After all, it’s not like he had been asked those questions before, so he was caught entirely off guard. So he just laid there, staring at the pony, studying her in an awkward silence, hoping that a miracle would happen and for some reason the pony would let it go and leave him alone.
“Oh, how rude of me. My name's Applejack, and you are?” She reached out her hoof easily, as quick as any everyday motion would be. The dragon, not used to such actions and even more unsure of their meaning, flinched back in fear, grabbing his head for emotional support. His natural reaction to a fast moving object being flung towards his face was to accept it as danger. Applejack paused awkwardly. “Uh… ok,” she finally said. She gave him another once-over, this time looking closer to make sure that he was not hurt. Applejack was Honesty, not Patience, and she was really wanting some answers. “Look, are ya gonna talk or what?” she asked, leaning in to glare at the dragon as her hair flowed a bit towards his face.
“Tha…nk you.” His voice trembled as he calmed down and said the one phrase he had hardly said to anypony in his entire life.
“You’re wel…come,” Applejack said, trying to talk on his level and getting very annoyed with the lack of answers surrounding this strange child dragon. “Hmm...” Applejack tapped her hooves a couple of times, trying to think of what to do with him. He nervously looked at the ground, flicking his eyes up every once in a while as she decided his fate. She certainly looked kindof harmless, and he felt his breathing slow a little.
The jury quickly returned with a unanimous verdict. “Alrighty then, dragon, you're comin' with me!” Applejack finally decided. He flinched again as she stepped forward, but she had no intention of attacking him. Instead, she swiftly threw the dragon on her back and sped off into town. The action happened so quickly that the dragon was confused for a few seconds. He eventually realized that, to his complete astonishment, he was riding on the back of a pony.
What little calm the dragon had felt before had disappeared; he now assumed that he was in big trouble. He nervously swallowed a big lump of near-frozen spit. Never before had anypony brought him to anywhere; usually they just ran him out of town or ignored his pleas for food. The dragon remembered that it was no different with his race or the griffons—no one wanted him in their town, yet this strange orange pony had given him food and now was bringing him into her town. Barely hanging on to Applejack’s back, he noticed more and more ponies appearing in the distance, staring at the strange sight of a baby dragon riding on the back of one of the most dedicated members of Ponyville. The unwanted attention did not help the dragon’s nerves. Luckily for him, Applejack quickly arrived at her destination: the town library.
The dragon did not know who Applejack was looking for, but it soon became readily apparent that Ponyville was also home to a living pink whirlwind that decided it would like nothing more than to play with the little dragon.
“Hey, Applejack! Who’s this? Wow! He looks just like Spike! Hey, look at his orange scales, and blue spikes. Hey dragon, want to have a party? C’mon, Applejack, I just got some new stuff and your new friend looks like he could use some fun! So can we? Can we? Can we?” The pink pony jumped up and down as she looked all over the dragon, poking and prodding him without so much as introducing herself. The energetic pony (for, contrary to what he had previously thought, the whirlwind was actually a pony) at first scared the dragon, but her appearance and attitude (especially when compared to Applejack's) told the dragon that she clearly meant no harm. That is, with the exception of his ears, which she seemed intent on talking off.
“Pinkie Pie! Ah don’t have time for your horse play! Ah got me a situation here, so would ya please calm yerself down and let me deal with it?” Applejack asked as sincerely as she could, being careful to not upset her friend while trying to indicate the urgency of her mission. Pinkie Pie noticed the frown on the creature that told her something big was going on.
“Oh, okay then... We can... party later!” Pinkie Pie walked off, only looking back once with a slightly worried face.
Applejack reached for the door handle of the library when she heard the telltale sign of her other friend Rarity sneaking up behind her.
“Applejack, have you seen...” She cut her sentence short as she noticed the dragon on her back. Her eye was drawn to his tattered claws and dirty tail and face, and she winced at the slight smell that came off his scales. “Oh my word, your... new dragon looks awful!” The rude statement caused the dragon to look even more downcast, as his eyes began to well up with tears; she had mentioned him like he was a thing. “Well, don’t you worry. Rarity will fix this!” She ignored the dragon’s pleas while she magically cast up a wall divider and quickly did what she does best. The dragon protested loudly and tried to make her stop whatever she was doing, but to no avail. Applejack was more than slightly amused at this, but knew that Rarity could not help it (and knew that if she interfered, she would probably be receiving the same treatment).
Soon, the dragon's torture was done. “There!” Rarity proclaimed. “Much more presentable!” The dragon looked far cleaner with his nails all done up and his scales and spikes all polished. On the other hoof, the dragon himself was barely standing.
The world swam in front of his eyes, and with dizzy steps, he tried to steady himself having been forcefully taken off of Applejack’s back.
Applejack swallowed her mirth at his plight and annoyance at this setback. “Rarity, please stop! He's no friend of mine; I caught him trying to steal apples from my trees. But that don’t matter, somethin's clearly wrong here, and I aim to get to the bottom of it.” Applejack hoped she had passed on her intended message—go away so I can get on with my business. Applejack was definitely growing annoyed with her all of her friends' antics.
“Oh, I’m sorry; he just looked so much like my Spikey Wikey I couldn’t help it,” Rarity blushed as she strolled away, admiring her handy work but ignoring the dragon’s nervousness.
At another attempt to complete the simple task of opening the door, she was yet again interrupted by another pony. The blue blur came in at such intense speeds that it flew headlong into the dragon, knocking him off his legs and sending him flying into a nearby tree. The blue pegasus pony tumbled to the ground, but got up quickly, an annoyed look crossing her face.
“Spike!” she complained. “I was just about to complete my new…” She too suddenly stopped. “Oh. You’re not Spike,” the cyan pegasus commented while she quickly ran over to the dragon. While Rainbow Dash was used to such landings, the little dragon was not, and he was once again starting to look pretty roughed up.
The dragon’s eyes were practically spinning as he struggled to get back up, but his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed, unconscious. Applejack ran over as she sighed in frustration over her friend's abilities to make an entrance. The cyan colored pony attempted to wake up the dragon while Applejack went to go fetch some water.
Applejack returned with the water, only to see her friend making funny faces at the unconscious dragon. Her eyes rolled in frustration. “Rainbow Dash, this ain't no game! You just knocked him cold out, and Ah don’t even know his name!” She splashed her bucket of cold water on him in an attempt to wake him, but the water did nothing except succeed in soaking his body.
Rainbow Dash grew more worried at her actions and attempted to defend herself. “Well, I’m sorry! I didn’t see him coming! And if you don’t know him, then what in the hay was he doing riding you?”
“Ah just explained this to Rarity. I found him stealing my apples, but when I confronted him he tried to fight me...”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at this. Applejack was one on a list of very few ponies that she would not want to meet in a dark alley.
“...which frankly did nothin' but show me that this here dragon has some issues. But then he started crying, begging for some food, explaining that he had not had any food for damn near days now.”
“He looks barely older than Spike, how can he be starving? Where are his... you know... dragon parents?” Rainbow paused.
“Wait. Do dragons even have parents?” she asked, somewhat downcast. Dash's eyes filled with pity as she looked on his lifeless body.
“That’s why I’ve been tryin' t' get to Twilight in the library. I aim to get the bottom of this mystery, and he ain't somethin' I’m just gonna ignore,” Applejack said as she slowly lifted the dragon onto her back again and walked back to the library.
“But Twilight is away on official royal business or whatever, and she won’t be back until tomorrow.”
Applejack exhaled in exasperation. “Oh, that's great. Now what do we do with him? Wait, is Spike at least home, Dash?”
“Oh yeah, that could work. He should be inside,” Dash said as she flew away. She felt bad for him, but she didn't really want to be part of this serious looking problem.
Applejack finally was able to open the library door uninterrupted. She came in and immediately saw a childlike purple dragon organizing books. The purple dragon almost mirrored the one coldly sleeping on her back.
“Spike!” Applejack practically screamed, which caused Spike to throw all the books into the air in fright. They fell down, and the books perfectly buried him. The ones that didn't land on his head, that is.
“Oh, what do you want Applejack? I’m kind of really busy here-” Spike just suddenly stopped talking when he got a look at her back.. The unconscious dragon just lay there. He was an almost perfect impression of Spike himself. He rubbed his eyes, he now thought he was dreaming.
“Who the hay is that? Another dragon and… and he looks just like me!” Spike said, unsure if he should be excited or scared. “Uhh, also, why is he sleeping on your back?”
Applejack sighed as she explained her story for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “Okay, look, Ah caught this here dragon attempting to steal from my apple trees. He tried to put up a fight, but he fell flat on his butt begging me for any amount of food. He's clearly younger then you, was starvin', and also alone. Ah don’t know where he’s from, where his dragon parents are, or even his name. Clearly somethin's wrong, and Ah was hoping Twilight would be here to help, but since it's just you, Ah was hoping maybe you could watch him until she gets back?” Applejack felt that that had been her best version yet, but the explanation still had Spike looking at Applejack like she was crazy. “Oh, and Dash accidentally ran into him, which is why he is unconscious. I think us ponies are frightening him, so maybe another dragon would help, so what do ya say?” Applejack smiled at the still quizzical look on Spike’s face, hoping he would just say yes so she could move on with her day.
“Umm... ok, he can sleep in my bed for now, I suppose,” Spike said, still very confused by the whole situation.
“Oh thank heaven... Here, help me get him into your bed.” Applejack walked up to the raised bed as Spike picked him up and took off his things he wore so he could tuck the strange dragon into his carriage-like bed.
“What are these, Applejack?” Spike asked, holding up the things the dragon had been wearing.
“I dunno. Personal effects or sommat.”
Spike took a closer look. The dragon had been wearing a homemade water canteen, and a small brown satchel. Spike looked inside and found bag of odd artifacts tucked deep inside. Curious, he opened the bag to find some weird items he didn't recognize, and a medium-sized gem that looked to be part of a necklace. His eyes widened. “Oh. a gem. Oh, that looks so tasty!” The blue gem radiated in Spike’s eyes as he ignored any manners at all and attempted to eat it, much to Applejack's horror.
“STOP! Spike, Ah forbid you from eating any of his possessions, you got me?” Applejack said in a stern voice as she spun the dragon around to look him eye to eye. “He may be a thief, but those are still his.”
“Ok, sheesh. I’ll leave them alone and watch after him.”
“Great, just please watch him until Twilight can get back so we can figure this all out.” Applejack nodded in finality as she left the library. Spike was still pretty confused as he scratched his head.
As the door closed, Spike was left alone again. He made sure the other dragon was asleep and went back to organizing the library. As he did his tasks of cleaning and sorting, he couldn’t help but look back at the other dragon. It was almost creepy how much the strange dragon looked like a mirror image of himself, but he shook his head, trying his best to ignore his thoughts. But what was really getting to Spike was the tasty gem in the other dragon’s pouch. Spike had not eaten one in a long while and it looked so inviting to him. He kept trying to distract himself, but the thought of the blue rock in his mouth was overpowering.
“I can’t stand it!” He reached inside the other dragon’s pouch and pulled out the blue gem and just stared at it, attempting to study it. The oval-shaped gem was certainly different from the ones that he usually feasted on; it almost radiated a light, but after looking at it in his claws under no light, it was clearly just a normal gem. It felt quite warm to the touch. Spike’s instincts got the better of him and he decided to finally take a lick.
This, however, was a bad idea. “YUCK! What kind of gem is this? Tastes awful, glad I didn’t try to eat it.” Spike wiped his tongue off and put the gem back in the dragon’s pouch, disappointed but glad he did not actually eat it.
Spike looked back at the orange dragon again. It was clear that Applejack was right and something really was wrong with him. He looked tired, and almost wild looking, as if he had never even slept indoors. Spike took a risk and ran a cautious claw down the other dragon. His scales were nearly identical to his on the surface, but they certainly felt different. Spike’s scales were rough yet smooth enough so you could rub them and not get hurt, but the other dragons were shinier and rougher than Spike’s. The orange dragon’s teeth were nearly identical, but that investigation also revealed that his breath was smellier than Spike’s. Again, the orange dragon’s tail was nearly the same as Spike's. Even under the tail he could feel the skin where the orange scales did not grow, just like on Spike. The skin was noticeably colder than Spike’s, though, almost to a chill. But what really threw Spike off was the lack of the end of his tail. Instead of a nice, pointy tail as there should have been, there was a piece of plated metal that mirrored Spike’s. The false tail was attached by some kind of leather strap; Spike tried moving it but stopped almost immediately when he noticed some scarring underneath.
These discoveries aside, almost everything on the surface was normal with this dragon; but after spending twenty minutes alone with him, Spike started to have really bad feelings about this other creature sleeping in his bed. Spike sighed and decided to just leave him alone and finish his work. He could write some more letters that needed to be written and wait for Twilight to come home the next day. Spike just hoped the dragon slept that long, he wasn’t thrilled about an early awakening.
“Finally done with my work! Well, that was boring.” Spike sighed after hours of work, it was starting to get late and most of the residents of Ponyville were getting ready to end their day. “Now what do I do? And a better question, where do I sleep?”
The orange dragon still had not woken up, and this meant that Spike had no bed to sleep in. He tried to sleep in Twilight's bed, but it was a bit large for him and didn’t feel right, he simply could not get comfortable. Spike groaned softly, and froze in shock as a new voice suddenly broke the silence.
“What happened?” The orange dragon had finally come to. He was rubbing his eyes, trying to focus on his surroundings. He noticed he was in an odd basket, which was inside a library of some sort. He looked around until he found a frozen state purple dragon standing below him on the bottom floor. “What the…You’re a dragon!” the dragon gasped, stating the obvious. The shock of discovery had completely woken the dragon up from his sleepy state.
“I was the last time I checked. Well, my name is Spike,” Spike said, climbing up to the basket. Spike nervously brought his claw out to introduce himself to the strange dragon.
The orange dragon looked at Spike’s paw. In his short life he had never even seen another dragon, let alone one that would attempt a greeting. The orange dragon started to shake a bit, and beads of sweat went down his scales and over his forehead. Spike noticed that the orange dragon’s sweat was colored light blue, and much to Spike's astonishment, it seemed to sparkle somewhat.
Through sheer force of will he took out his orange claw and shook Spike’s hand slowly. “Um... hello there, Spike,” was all the dragon could muster as he got out of the basket and stood up, brushing himself off.
A slightly awkward silence followed. “Right, so what’s your name?” Spike said rubbing the back of his head scratching his scales in awkwardness and attempting to give a steady smile to the orange dragon.
The dragon’s eyes grew wide in a swift motion as the dragon grew more nervous. That Applejack pony had already asked him his name, but he had refused to say anything to her. Wasn’t that enough?
“Look, I don’t know why that pony dragged me in here, but I’m not here to talk. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to grab my stuff and leave.”
“Well, actually, I do mind. I was asked to look after you until my friend Twilight Sparkle gets back tomorrow, so you are not going anywhere.” Spike waved his claw attempting to seal the deal and get his simple point across.
The orange dragon was unimpressed. “Uh huh. I don’t know how they caught you too, but if you want we can both leave-”
The orange dragon attempted a compromise, but found himself being interrupted by some loud laughter and the sound of a little dragon rolling on the floor.
“Catch me?” Spike gasped, trying—and failing—to restrain his laughter. “What? Little guy, I live here. And it’s not like we captured you, either; we just want to know what's going on,” Spike said, laughing on the floor (much to the orange dragon’s confusion).
“You live here Spike? With the ponies, they just let you live in here with no problems?” the orange dragon asked, dumbstruck, wondering what exactly was going on.
“Yeah, of course. Twilight and I moved here from Canterlot. Before Ponyville, I mostly just lived with her, but now I have plenty of friends.” As Spike was saying this, the orange dragon's face became even more surprised. The dragon began to look down and move his eyes about, trying to make sense of this impossible situation. Eventually, Spike spoke again.
“Where exactly are you from little dragon?” Spike asked him, still not knowing his name.
The smaller dragon was growing annoyed by this slightly bigger one. In the short time that he had been talking to Spike, he had been called 'little guy' and 'little dragon', and that really rubbed his scales the wrong way. Part of him wanted to spit back at Spike how much this annoyed him, and he probably would have; but the sheer impossibility of what Spike was telling him was too much for him to comprehend.
The orange dragon sighed and walked over the one of the windows in the library. Wordlessly, he pointed out towards the dark forest and waited for Spike to understand. Spike walked over and looked at the place that the dragon was pointing to, and did a double-take.
“Are you trying to tell me that you're from the Everfree Forest?” Spike asked, in the most serious tone that he could muster up. The other dragon nodded and shrugged, not finding anything wrong with that fact. “But where is your home in it? You have a home, right?” Spike asked, now just humoring the odd dragon.
“I suppose I don’t have a home, I just live outdoors.” Again, the orange dragon replied with something that caused Spike to feel worried. He had just said something that was just plain wrong, and yet he had said it with such a straight face and with no worry in his eyes at all.
“Okay, look. You still haven't given me your name, and where in the heck are your parents?” Spike was running out of patience and took an almost fatherly tone with the strange dragon. Though, on second thought, that last question was a bit odd, especially considering Spike's own answer to that question would be Twilight who was in fact a unicorn and not a dragon.
“I could ask you the same thing. If you're living with ponies, then where are your parents?”
“Well, my egg was found when Twilight was younger, and she raised me.” Spike grimaced. He felt weird giving up such personal information so soon, and covered it with another question. “Now I've told you my story, you tell me yours,” Spike stated simply, folding his arms as he waited for a solid answer.
“I haven’t got a name. No parents means no one gave one to me,” the orange dragon said with a slight smirk on his face.
This was, by far, the strangest thing that Spike had heard come out of the other dragon's mouth. “You don’t have a name?!” Spike asked in complete disbelief, but the orange dragon simply nodded. Spike had seen plenty of ponies who lied before, and he did it all the time, but he knew when somepony tried, they usually showed obvious signs. The other dragon showed none of these signs, which just confused Spike even more. “Then who raised you? You couldn't possibly have been on your own since you were born!” But that statement seemed to have hit the nail on the head. The orange dragon looked down, his silence and expression revealing that Spike had, unfortunately, hit the jackpot.
“I... uh… ok, you see the problem with that is...” Spike started to mumble to himself as his brain tried to piece together the sheer improbability of the whole situation. “I mean, look, it's it's… LOOK, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!” Spike finally shouted as he turned and faced the orange dragon. Spike’s composure looked like a child throwing a tantrum. The dragon remained still, not moving his face, but he was certainly growing unsteady.
As the orange dragon refused to move, Spike regained his composure by taking some deep breathes to relax. The two dragons just stared at each other for a few minutes until Spike finally ended the awkward silence.
“Okay, fine. You have no name, you live in the wild and you have no parents and that’s all fine and makes sense.” Spike said it this time calmly, as if to reassure himself that he was not crazy.
“Yes, now you've gotten what you needed, now can I go?” The nameless dragon finally spoke with a positive tone.
“No, you will not be leaving,” Spike said firmly. “Tomorrow, Twilight will be back, and then we can figure out what to do with you.” Spike made it sound like an upcoming punishment to the orange dragon, causing the smaller of the two to gulp.
“What to do with me? What do you mean?” the orange dragon asked in an increasingly nervous tone.
“Well, we can’t exactly have a baby dragon wandering around with no caretaker. Twilight is very nice, and she will help you find a home here in Ponyville,” Spike said. Noticing the other dragon’s nervous tone, brought his claw over to the shoulder of the dragon to offer some support.
“You all want me... to live here? But I’m not a pony, I’m a dragon!” The orange dragon knocked Spike's claw away and backed up against the wall. His tone was almost angry as the absurd thought went through his head.
“No one here cares what species you are,” Spike protested. “Look at me—I’m a dragon, and I love it here! Look, I promise you that if you just listen to Twilight and me, everything will be okay.”
The dragon could not ignore Spike’s sincere tone, but no matter how he thought about it, living in Ponyville just seemed like it was too good to be true. But he also knew that he could not outfight any of those ponies; they were four times his size and even Spike was bigger than he. So he simply took a few deep breaths and nodded his head, giving an awkward smile back to Spike.
“All right, now we just need to figure out where we both will be sleeping for the night. Like I said, I don’t think Twilight will make it back until tomorrow.” Spike looked at the basket and it was not big enough to hold both of them. He would have tried Twilight’s bed, but it hadn't been comfortable and had practically sucked him in, and he doubted that the orange dragon would fare any better.
“I could just sleep on the floor,” The orange dragon mentioned as he looked at the basket that looked incredibly uncomfortable for him.
“No, I won’t make you do that. I’m sure we have something around here you that you can use for the night,” Spike responded as he started searching through the library's utility room. Suddenly, he let out a small whistle of celebration. “Wow that’s convenient. I had no idea that we had a spare basket back here.” He put it next to his basket and added a pillow and a blanket.
The orange dragon stared at the second basket in disgust. It looked very uncomfortable to him. “I think I'll be ok on the floor.”
“No, you will be sleeping in this basket. Now get some rest, ok?” The orange dragon was growing annoyed with the parenting style attitude that Spike was using; while Spike, on the other claw, was growing pleased with himself for being in charge of somepony else for a change.
The orange dragon sighed and awkwardly climbed into the basket and hesitantly draped the blanket over himself. Spike smiled, then turned off the lights, climbed into his own basket, and wished the dragon a good night's sleep. For a few moments they were both simply listening to the other’s breathing, making it difficult to sleep; but soon Spike was out like a light. However, the orange dragon was having a far more difficult time getting some rest. The dragon twisted and turned himself all over to try and get a comfortable position, until finally sighed in defeat and climbed out of the basket. He looked down at Spike and made sure he was sleeping before turning to look around the library curiously.
Reading came easy to the dragon, but he was really not in any mood to pick up any of the books. As he walked, he noticed the door to the library was unguarded. He looked back at Spike, ensuring that he as still asleep, and opened the door slowly. He peeked out, noticing that nopony was out in the town. He knew this was his chance to make an escape; but for some reason, he could not work up the courage to do it. He decided to stay, but he still needed somewhere to sleep, and he knew the basket was out of the question. He tried sleeping on the floor, but something else bothered him. He looked up at the library's ceiling and noticed something was missing—stars. He was used to seeing the huge expanse of stars every night, and they had always put him to sleep out in the wild. He looked all over the house, and noticed on the roof there was a balcony with a telescope to look out at the stars. He smiled as he thought to himself that this would work for the night. He crept back through the library and climbed to the top floor, doing his best not to wake up Spike, as he opened the door to the roof. It was one of the most beautiful sights that the dragon had ever seen. Down below him, the town was half lit up, but it was the stars that made this Ponyville really shine.
He got comfortable on the wooden planks and just stared up at the stars as he relaxed. He wondered what it was like to live in Ponyville, and who this Twilight was. He wondered about the pony who took pity on him and gave him those apples, and about the blue one that knocked him out, and the white one that had cleaned him up. He also wondered about the pink colored one that seemed excited about everything, and he wondered about Spike; but most importantly, he wondered why these ponies seemed different from the other towns that he had tried to visit in the past. Thoughts drifted into dreams as he yawned loudly, then settled into a deep sleep along with the rest of the residents of Ponyville.